Lollipops and Flowers

Alyssa was lucky enough to get a new shirt a month ago. I was making a shirt for one of my nieces and couldn't decide on which pattern to use. I ended up making two shirts - one for Alyssa and one for my niece. Good thing they are the same age. I love the colorful circles on the shirt and Alyssa seems to like it too. She calls it her lollipop shirt. I decided to mismatch buttons because of all those colorful circles all over the shirt. The pattern is from some Japanese book/magazine. As usual it was very easy to sew. It only took me two evenings - one to cut the pattern pieces out and one for sewing. Yay for projects like that!Another shirt - Flowers - I made for my niece. It was a little harder to make as it had more details. The pattern was from Ottobre Magazine 4/2010 #23.It turned out a little bit wide but it still looked great. I liked the pleats on the bodice but the fabric choice was not in their favor so they are hardly seen. I was a little bit confused by the front button placket but then figured it out after ripping it off once. See, I still manage to make things here and there. The problem is that I don't have (or maybe don't want to find) time to take pictures and then post them here.

Baby Socks

Hey, I've been hiding from you :) Not on purpose and terribly miss sharing the pictures and stuff but my life is quite busy these days. Nonetheless, I have been making things here and there. The freshest thing I've made this past week are the new socks for Katelyn. It's getting colder and colder here in Moscow and she needed some warmer socks. Love making tiny things. Sad to see my baby grow so fast because I have so many planned things for her to make.

Back to the socks.

The pattern is by Drops Design. They have a ton of cute designs and all of them are free. The pattern was very straightforward and quite easy. These are my first ever socks and I loved making them.

Baby Steps

I made something again! You can tell I am very excited. I am making baby steps in getting back to sewing.

Katelyn was born at the wrong season because all the newborn clothes we have is for winter time. While we were in the US I got her some stuff for the first three months but then I did not have that much from 3-6 mos. So when she started growing out of her 0-3 stuff I had to do something. So I started sewing. This little romper is so cute. I loved making it and it was a pretty fast project. To make it cuter (or maybe I just did not have an already made bias tape) I made a polka dot bias tape. The pattern is from the Swedish magazine Ottobre 2011-3.

From the same magazine I made this sleeveless shirt. I used my old jersey shirt and cut it out with the original hem as the hem of a shirt. Another fast project. But took me a little longer than I would have liked it because it was my first time sewing with knits.

I was planning to make couple more rompers but the weather got so cold today that we had to wear jackets. So maybe I should start sewing for the fall already.

Sunny Hat

When I have a tiny bit of free time I run to the sewing machine. I usually cannot finish anything in one sitting just because there are little people who make sure I am right by them most of the time. But Katelyn needed a sunhat and all the ones I have from the girls are too big. So what else could I do? I sewed one. It was an easy and fast project but it still ended up being a little big. I love the fabric with little matryoshka dolls (you'll see more of them as I am obsessed) and yellow polka dots on the inside. It's fully reversible but we'll only wear it with dolls on top.

Orange Onesie

I totally forgot to show you this little number. I posted about it on Ravelry and forgot all about it. Are you familiar with Ravelry? It is an excellent web site for people who like to knit or crochet. You have to register there and then you get lost in all the projects. Every time before I make something I stop at Ravelry and look for inspiration. There are so many wonderful patterns there both free and the ones you have to pay for. So go check it out.

Enough of Ravelry and let's get to the pictures. Here's my little thing I made for Katelyn. I knitted it before she was born but it took me forever to finish it up. I was contemplating on how to make the neckline look better and also how to put the snaps in between the legs. Neither was in the pattern so I had to come up with it myself and that's why it took me a month. :)

While I was finishing it up my girl was growing like a weed. Then when it finally was done I put it on her and it fit her perfectly. And it's supposed to be for a 3 month old baby.

I have so many projects lined up waiting for me to make them. I am afraid it's not gonna happen for a while though. It is taking me so long to do something these days. Katelyn doesn't like to sleep during the day (or night) and it's the hardest. I hope she changes her ways and I have a little more time on my hands for things I like to do. Am I asking too much? :)

Making It Cuter

Who likes plain white onesies? Not me. So when I had a little bit of time I made some appliques. The good part is that this project is fast and easy. To come up with the ideas what to put on these onesies I went through Google, looked at other people's ideas and maybe stole some. :)

The Pacman onesie is my favorite. It makes me smile every time Katelyn wears it.

The downside of this project is that these onesies are not gonna last much longer. My baby is growing like a weed and will not fit into her 0-3 months clothing pretty soon.

The Array of Skirts

To keep myself sane and calm in the crazy times I have to find time for myself. When I find time for myself I just have to spend it all on crafting. Because that's something that helps me sort my thoughts out and helps me calm down and look at things from a different perspective. Maybe it's because I tend not to talk when I craft or maybe it's just calming repetitive things of the craft itself make me forget about stressful things. I have some other ways to relieve my stress - CHOCOLATE. Lots and lots of it. But agree with me crafting is much better... at least for my muffin tops. :) So here's the latest stuff I made. I have a huge line of unfinished projects waiting for me to finish but not enough time to do it. So I will have more pictures to show you in a day or so. I couldn't resist buying fabric and wanted to make something for my girlies. Emma loves skirts and so I thought it would be easy to just whip up a couple of skirts for them. I made two of these easy skirts. Did not take a picture of Emma wearing it because I have to bribe her to do anything these days and did not feel like bribing that day. Her skirt is made from the same fabric but her ricrac is pink (obviously). These two skirts were fun to make because they are different from the cupcake skirts and not as easy. So Alyssa's skirt is just two tiered skirt that I made without a pattern. Just winged it. I made a skirt like that for Emma a while ago and so recreated it from my memory for Alyssa. Emma's skirt was even more fun, because it has pockets. Why do little girls like having pockets so much? Have no idea, but know that Emma would always appreciate pockets. So one day saw this tutorial and decided that I was too lazy to make a dress but would love to make a skirt like that. The only problem was that after cutting it out I realized that for a skirt I had to make the top a little higher so I could put the elastic in without making pockets tiny. So I had to come up with something else which was wide elastic. You cannot really see it on this picture, but it's there. So here are my little things I made here and there. Thanks to my mother-in-law for letting me use all her stuff for sewing and her sewing machine. Good thing she is crafty too :)